Did you know that my brother is my favorite musician? He can be yours too! Here’s one of his newest videos with his band The Recreation Station. I love it.
Run for the Hills.
Friday, November 27th, 2009Why am I in Denver at 4 in the morning?
Thursday, November 12th, 2009A better question is, why am I at the airport, and not at the hotel which our apologetic airline offered to put all connecting passengers up in tonight? (Well, last night, I guess.) Well, the way my travels panned out (short version: not good) when you count in delays and shuttles and security checks and all that, I would have only gotten about four hours of sleep at the hotel, and figured I’d do just as fine if not better at the airport. In hindsight, four hours of sleep sounds pretty good. Heck, an hour sounds heavenly. I’m not writing this to complain – I got all of my complaining out in Milwaukee where our flight was delayed four hours. I’m just writing because it’s now five in the morning, I’ve only managed to sleep in occasional bursts of 20 minutes (the amount of time between Homeland Security announcements)and I don’t know what else to do with my time. And dang, I think I left my Chex Mix on the plane!
“The Homeland Security Advisory Level is currently at Orange. Please be aware of the increased threat, and report any suspicious behavior or unattended baggage to the nearest airport employee, law enforcement officer, or TSA representative.” Over and over and over again.
I’m starting to see passengers – or maybe airline employees – trickle back into the airport. I’ve teamed up with a couple women who are also en route to Portland and am breaking all the rules by watching their bags as they use the ladies room. I opened my carry-on to pull out a sweater to use as a pillow and blanket (it failed as both) and now there is no way I’m getting my carry-on to close again.
I see people drinking coffee and eating pastries, and one of my new traveling friends just gave me her airline voucher for food, so I’ma go get some breakfast! What an adventure, as Laurel would call it 
Jumbly dates.
Saturday, November 7th, 2009You might notice that the dates on my comics (the handwritten ones) don’t always match up with the posting date that is published with each entry. This is because sometimes I cheat, and draw the comics after the fact, and then try to post them on a previous day, or schedule postings a few days in advance, and my brain can’t really manage keeping all of the dates in order. If I’m regular I can just draw the comic, post it on the same day, and the dates will agree, no problem. But things are a little complicated right now since I’m out of state and using someone else’s scanner and also busy with family stuff. I’m trying not to leave you hanging while I’m gone, though, isn’t that nice of me? But yeah, if you use this comics schedule as any kind of compass or personal calendar (dear goodness!) please be mindful of the irregularities.
Alarming, really.
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009I’m trying something new, it’s called “Setting An Alarm.” It’s this thing where you go to bed and use some device which is equipped with a timing mechanism (it could be a clock, a phone, a rooster) and at a designated time the alarm will go off and rouse you from your sleep. I used to use one of these as recently as 3 months ago, when I had regular employment and needed to get to work on time, or at least consistently 5-10 minutes late. When I became self-employed, I thought that I would give my internal clock its chance to shine. (I want to say “biological clock” there but that’s the one that wants to have babies, right?) Anyway, I thought I’d leave it up to nature and trust that my body would crave the daily grind of drawing comics as innately as it craved food and water and sunlight. It seems that my body, instead, craved sleep and not a whole lot else, at least before 10am. So here is what my schedule started to look like, when I let it be completely organic:
7:00am: First stir. Fall immediately back to sleep.
9:00am-9:30am: Wake up.
9:30-10:30: Internet while still in bed.
10:30-11:00am: Make coffee, get some kind of food in my stomach.
11:00am: Ease into drawing.
12:00pm: Break for lunch.
1:00pm: Return to drawing.
1:30-5:00pm: Get distracted intermittently.
5:00pm: Call it a day, meet up with friends.
Now listen, I am a German, Lutheran, Midwestern woman. I know a thing or two about work-ethic, it has been bred into me. I recognize when I’m not living to potential, or feeling any kind of push. I can feel it in my bones, this kind of itching. In my defense, I don’t think it was pure laziness that determined the above schedule. I think (and trusted others have confirmed) that for the first month or two after you move to a new place one of the top priorities is to become acclimated, get to know the surroundings, and make friends. This is an important step, and I have been doing it. It’s not like I’ve been substituting my drawing time with soap operas. So I don’t feel guilty about my pattern leading up until now. But I do think it is time to kick things up a bit, now that I’ve started to feel more settled and adjusted.
So, I’ve set an alarm. I’ve set it for real-people time, which is 7:30am. I haven’t given up in-bed internetting, though, and you should be glad, because that’s how you’re able to read this thrilling post about my new schedule. Why do I subject you to these things?
 |
 |
 |
